True Peace
by hatakescarecrow
Summary: Sakura is angry with the way village is working. But a threat has emerged to swallow their world order. Sakura wonders why only ex-konoha nin are the villians in their story. This is a story of which one she will betray, her ideals or her village. AUish...


**Troubles and Peace**

A/N: - Thank you to Little Liar for pointing out that the chapter didn't come out right. Updating it again - same chapter one. Thanks.

Have you ever felt anger bubbling inside you? Angry at everything and anything. This world that you are a part of, where nothing goes as planned. War is over but peace has not yet prevailed. People are bickering, propaganda is on at full force. Villages overtly friends but covertly scheming away. People who are living in peace times but they don't know how to live in it. All they know is selfishness, how to make things better for themselves. That's all they have learnt in years of their survival, how to survive. Selfish people make selfish villages, fighting for resources fighting for money.

Sakura was fed up with the possession of self and apathy towards others displayed by everyone around. She could not change that, any of it. She was mighty powerful, before her fists even the mountains crumbled but even she could not change human nature. Selfishness was part of it yet she had hard time adjusting to it. What she had fought for, dreams of the blissful world but here people were just too afraid.

The reason for her current fierce anger was rejection of her report for the last mission. She was standing outside her mentor's office who has asked her to amend her report. Now she was not even allowed to speak or write she saw and felt during this mission. This peace and ensuing agreements felt more of a cage than freedom.

Villages for keeping peace signed new agreements with Daimyo. Spheres of influence were decided and all wanted themselves practically shut off of outside. They would trade, meet, communicate with each other but no one would bother with other's problem. War, fight and violence became abhorrent even when it is to keep peace and help a friend village. Each Village wanted peace for themselves. No one wanted to be involved in anything disruptive.

One week ago:

Five shinobi had turned up missing but all villages were struggling, struggling to let others take up the investigation. Finally Konoha had to accept the mission. The Hokage could not deny the responsibility since they all went missing in Fire country.

Team 7 going on first real mission in five years. First real mission for anyone in all elemental nations. Not many would be thrilled about it but Sakura was. Finally she would get to verify for herself the rumors of degrading life outside the Village. Rumors were rife of misries of people outside the elemental villages.

Team Yamato is jumping from one tree to another. There are not many threats left yet five shinobi one of each village turned up missing from same area. It can't be a coincidence. It can't be a person or two as Sensei said earlier that the way they disappeared it felt more of an organization's handiwork. So this mission is a real thrill for team seven, time to do some usual ninja stuff and blow off some steam. But it was also a responsibility, Konoha did not send out it's most capable team for nothing. This new threat had to be dealt with swiftly so as to preserve their hard fought peace.

Their lives have been good, but they have missed being a ninja. Peace wasn't as good as everybody hyped it up to be. There were many restrictions on their movements and more council were appointed. More councils meant more scrutiny. Everybody worked so hard and lost so many friends and comrades to achieve it that everyone was ready to do whatever it takes to keep and preserve it.

Life had been good. Sakura became the head medic at the hospital, though she is yet to be promoted to jonin. She is the one facing the boredom of peace the most. Her social life is negligible and the person she loved is right now locked in the prison paying for the crimes he committed towards the village. All she has left to do on a daily basis to treat scratches people get during their daily lives. She also felt betrayed in her own heart. The dreams she had for the future were dashed. Peaceful village was not really what it was trumped up to be. Also her own inability to do much about what she was hearing about made her angrier than ever before. Village seemed like the golden cage and she was excited to be outside for once, outside and free to do whatever she wants.

Naruto became jonin a few months back and speculations are that he will soon be named rokudaime hokage. He is happy with his fiancée as he has achieved everything he set out to achieve. Everyone recognise and accept him, hail him as the hero of last war when he and Sasuke together defeated Obito Uchiha and divided the tailed beast and restored the balance to the world. Sai joined anbu again and still struggles with emotions but he is getting better at it. Ino is helping him a lot in that field though Sai still trusts his books more. He still continue to be with team Yamato as their fourth member on missions. Their captain and sensei Yamato is now the Jonin-commander, a post of prestige and in these days a lot of relevance. He holds a lot of sway among the jonins and is a trusted advisor of hokage. Of course being the teacher of the great heroes of Fourth great ninja war helps too.

"Hey Sakura-chan, what was the mission again?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Suddenly the demeanor of Sakura changed and Naruto could sense the anger-vibes coming off her. He jumped to dodge a chakra loaded punch she threw at him. Naruto knew she was going to do this. These days its pretty easy to tick Sakura off as she always seems to be on the edge. As he was out of her range now Sakura spoke "Naruto you idiot, how can you forget what the mission is?"

Naruto rubbing his hands behind his head and said "when baa-chan was explaining I was kinda thinking about the date with Hinata-chan and I didn't listen her. Anyway how important this could be... most probably another mission to go see old Daimyo and do some boring agreements."

"It stopped being cute a month ago Naruto, start focusing on work here." An irritated Sakura replied.

"Are you jealous of Hinata-san, ugly?" Sai pitched in with his new theory of life from the book 'theory of life'.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sakura turned to face her other stupid teammate.

"Well, you don't have any guy in your life who loves you back. The one you loved..." before Sai could finish his sentence Naruto covered Sai's mouth and stopped him from committing suicide. This was enough to draw the attention of their team leader that something more than just usual is going on. He turned back to look at his team but Sakura had already calmed herself. No need for him to interfere, kids do grow up fast.

"Anyways, Naruto it is not the usual mission. We have been assigned a S-rank mission." Sakura said changing the topic.

Signaling them to stop as they were on the border of their target village, Yamato thought it would be wise to discuss plan with his team again, With Naruto out of focus most of the time.

"Sakura, try not to land your teammates in the hospital before we even start the mission. And Naruto stay focused on mission. And Sai don't..." after thinking a little bit "do your thing. Now we have an important mission on our hands. There have been five kidnappings of five messengers, one of each nation, from this village. Our mission is to find who is behind this and capture the responsible persons, as far as possible alive. We are going to divide into two teams." Yamato looked at them and choose the best possible team. "I and Naruto will search in the east side of the village and Sai and Sakura, you two will search on the west side of the village. We will meet at 6pm at the entrance gates of the village and remember our mission is to find out who is behind all these kidnappings, so do not engage them. We do not know how dangerous these kidnappers are. Most likely these are some rogues or even group of bandits but still lets take extra caution. It is our first mission in long time and we do not want to fail it at any cost." Yamato look at his team and asks "any questions?"

Sakura nodded "So what kind of village is this?" It seemed a civilian village, small one but if there was some special thing about it, it would be better to know beforehand.

"It's been a while since I have come here, but as far as I remember that this village was fairly rich and prosperous. Villagers were civil and quite the fan of Konoha ninja, so it should not be difficult to get the information from the villagers. Alright, any other questions?" Yamato again scanned the faces of his team to look for any questions. When he got none, he signaled them to move out.

Sai and Sakura started their mission, but as soon as they entered the village it was not the same as their Sensei described it to them. This village was not in good shape. Most of the shops were closed and there were not many people around. It was dirty and dusty and had very few shops offering a very few things. Sakura saw a child, sitting on the side of the road, trying to sell few vegetables. The child was covered in tatters which could barely cover her up. She looked like she hadn't eaten anything in two-three days. Sakura walked deeper in the market and the scene seemed to repeat. Children, old people abandoned, poor and hungry. Her blood started to boil again. The rumors were turning out to be true. She had thought they were exaggerated but from the looks of it they were watered down. She wanted to help those poor children but she had a mission to complete. She was a ninja first and for a ninja duty and mission are foremost. Anyway she couldn't take to them to konoha, not all of them, they won't make it there on foot. Maybe she would mention all this in her mission report and she was sure that Konoha will help these poor people. It was one thing to turn blind eye on rumors but they could not turn away from an official report from one of their best ninjas.

After walking a little more Sakura saw a bar, and with her little rendezvous with Naruto and Jiraiya-sama long time ago and from what she read in the reports, she knew that the bars are most trusted place to get information. And she could use a drink to calm her nerves.

"Sai, I am going to check that bar and would try to find out there and you search around here. I doubt there are many people who would be able to help but nonetheless we have to try." Sai nodded understandably and moved on to search in the market while Sakura headed towards the bar.

Sakura entered the dark and shady bar and realized that this place was also not in much better shape than the rest of the village. There was just one customer in the bar, sitting in a distant corner drinking his sake and reading a book. The bartender greeted her with a heart-warming big toothed smile. The bartender seemed like he was in his late 40s with great body for a man his age. He welcomed and offered her to sit on the stool. Sakura took the seat and sighed. She didn't know that things were this bad out here. She didn't have any reason to come out here, well nobody had. These areas come directly under daimyo's reign and Konoha was not to meddle in it, so unless there was some work nobody came in these parts of the country from shinobi villages. Now there was really no chance she would get the information they needed because there are no people to interrogate except this bartender or that man sitting alone in that distant corner. The man seemed less inclined to talk as he was immersed in his book and didn't even notice her coming in even though she came in making as much noise as possible.

"Give me something strong." Not knowing what kind of variety he had or would keep. The town didn't seem like a place where liquor business would be booming. So Sakura just ordered the kind of drink instead of the specific brand.

"Are you sure, miss? You can afford to drink here?" that question really taken Sakura aback. What kind of stupid question is that, everybody can afford a glass of alcohol! But Sakura kept calm by reminding herself that she was on a mission and replied "yes, I can."

"And I would have taken your word for it, but I really am not in position to charity free drinks or beat money out of someone, do you understand miss?" Sakura nodded and took some cash out of her pocket and placed it on the table. After looking the cash, the bartender had the same toothy smile. He turned around to get her a drink from his few last bottles of sake available.

After placing her drink in front of her, the bartender said "I didn't mean asking for money upfront as an insult, but people around here don't have money to buy food and here you are ordering hard alcohol, so I had to make sure that you have money to pay me and you are not another freeloader. Though you look like you visiting the village rather than being an inhabitant of it."

Now his explanation made Sakura really sad. Here is a village whose people can't afford to pay for their own food but Konoha was prospering like never before. After wining that war she really thought that they finally achieved happiness for everybody but now all her previous beliefs appears to be shattering.

"So what happened to your village?"

"Not just my village, this whole area is suffering from the same fate. But why do you want to trouble yourself with this? Enjoy your drink and be happy as you long as you can. Let us be in our misery, miss."

"If you tell me the story, maybe I can help you. I know the hokage, if she knew the condition this village is in, she will definitely help you." Hearing this bartender started laughing, shaking his head at her innocence.

"We went to the Hokage for help but for her 'peace' was more important than our lives. According to the 'great' Hokage, we do not come under her jurisdiction so we have to go to the Daimyo to solve our problems and mitigate our grievances. Now I am not much of a genius, young lady, but you cannot expect the people looting and killing you to give you justice."

Another shock of her life. Sakura didn't know how to process this new information. Her village refused to help people who are getting killed and looted by other shinobis and local daimyo. That they are partially responsible for this condition of the village and many others like this. Before she could say anything the bartender places another drink in front of her and said "Well, you savor the drink and don't think about the matters that you have no control over. Anyways there aren't many left here to save." Sakura took the glass of sake and gulped it in one shot. She sensed that the man sitting in corner, reading his book, was shaking his head in disapproval. And that's the only thing she saw before everything started to black out.

Sai was searching for clues to find the person responsible for this mission but so far his search was in vain. So now he was sitting in a abandoned shop thinking about a place where one can kidnap five persons and no one would notice. This was a sparsely populated village good for running a kidnapping racket. There were not many people here but still five kidnappings and nobody notices that is a bit of a extra luck. Maybe it was not just luck and the guys doing it were actually smart but how could five people who were trained shinobi were kidnapped in a village and nobody saw anything. The only place where a trained shinobi will be captured easily is the place they would their guard down. There has to be a place where people trust the other people without question and also the place where all five would go once they come in town. 'It has to be a eating place but I found nothing suspicious in the restaurants that I visited. Also there is isn't much to serve in this place and not all five of them would go to same place to eat anyway. Then there is only one place left and that is the bar. People trust the bartender without any question.' Sai concluded that the bar is the only place this could happen. He realised that his partner just went in the bar. 'I hope she is in no trouble.' Sai thought and moved as quickly as possible to get to the bar. He did feel a little guilty about the position they were in. This was the most exciting time Sai experienced in years, but the fear of losing a teammate also made him feel sick in the stomach.

Sai rushed in the bar and found that it was empty. He checked and concluded no bartender. So Sai was right, it was the bar. But absence of Sakura made his fears turned in reality. Sai noticed a guy sitting in the corner reading a book. He was suspicious of the guy. His behavior was too odd, Who sits in a bar where there is not even a bartender like there is nothing wrong going on here.

Still Sai had to ask him, he had no other choice. "Sir, did you saw any pink haired girl in the bar?" He was wearing a white shirt and black trouser, typical for a civilian and had a mask not so typical for a civilian. Rest was just normal brown hair, black eyes. But something about this person, it felt odd. Even though he looked like a civilian, his demeanor was quite intimidating. His eyes were charcoal black had no emotions at all. The said man, without even looking away from his book, nodded and answered "Yes, the bartender took her from that door. She seemed pretty drunk." He said pointing a finger towards the back door of the bar and went back to reading his book. His nonchalance bugged Sai a lot but now is not a time to care about this man but time to save his teammate.

Sai quickly took out his scroll and brush and painted a large number of tracking rats and shouted "super beast scroll" and the small rats, made of ink, started coming out of the scroll and moving in the direction which the 'gentleman' pointed towards and took off to find his teammate. He sent another batch to find Yamato and Naruto. The strange man was still just reading his book like nothing happened but Sai gave priority to his teammate rather than a man with little care in the world.

Sai hurried towards the direction the rats were moving. She was in danger. She was more than capable of taking care of herself but as the man described her, Sakura didn't seem like much in control. It was their first mission in a long time and one of his teammates was in danger. He still could not get use to the feeling, maybe a long break does that to you. After running for a few minutes he saw a bulky man carrying Sakura on his shoulder and running. Sai quickly took out a kunai from his holster and threw it towards the running man's knee. As the kunai penetrated the man's knee, he collapsed with a cry and Sakura fell down, face first. "That hurts." Sakura cried out before standing up and dusting herself off.

"You are awake." Sai said surprisingly. Though it should not have been a surprise as she was one the best shinobi in the whole village and even better medic.

"Yes, I am awake Sai. Like I am going to knocked out by something that weak." She said looking towards the man who tried to drug her and is now screaming in pain clutching his knee. Sai hit the very sensitive area of the knee; the bartender is not going to walk for a long time.

"Then why were you acting like you got kidnapped?" Sai asked as he still did not get it.

"To get to the place where he kept other prisoners but you ruined that plan." Sakura explained to Sai and then walked over to her kidnapper and asked "Where are the other shinobi, our comrades that you kidnapped? And why are you doing this?" Sakura was never one to beat around the bush. And with the day she was having, She wanted answers immediately.

That was the moment the old man realised that he had no place to run anymore. 'He was right, I am no match for these shinobi.' It was the end of the line for him. With that realization he started laughing like a mad man and started speaking "Don't worry about them. They are in good hands. Worry about your village as he is coming for you all. To make you pay for all the crimes you committed and you will suffer like we did. He is coming for you..." he kept repeating the last line like a chant and his voice started fade out and he fell down on his back. There was white foam coming out of his mouth and as soon as Sakura saw that she realized he was poisoned.

Sai put his two fingers on older man's neck to feel the pulse and said "He has very faint pulse. I don't think he will last much longer." Sakura nodded. Even with her capabilities, a poison of this potency could not be treated in a jungle. "Well our mission was to capture him alive but I guess there was no use of that. He already told us that somebody is plotting something big against Konoha. I don't think that he had much more intel than that." Sai nodded at his comrades words and asked "So what do we do now?"

"Well let's take his body and meet up with Yamato sensei. I have a lot of questions to ask to him and the hokage." the pale skinned man nodded and scooped up the dead man body to be carried to the gates of the village.

"You saw that creepy man in the bar?"

"The one reading the book?"

Sai nodded "yeah, something about him didn't feel right."

"We will check it out before leaving."

Sai agreed and they walked towards the bar.

After some time he said "This feels nice, doesn't it?"

The kunoichi just hmmed in agreement. This was enough thrill for the day and from the omnious warning of the dying man, things were just beginning to get interesting.

A/N: - Read and Review. I have been wanting to write this one for a long time, finally got around to doing it. Anybody wants to help me improve the story please message me. Thanks.


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